Vitamins are essential nutrients which serve many functions. Vitamin deficiency has been cited as a neglected public health problem. As a result, the food and beverage industry has created vitamin fortified compositions to increase the vitamin intake by consumers. However, from the time the vitamin-containing product leaves the production facility and reaches the consumer, the product may be exposed to air, light, acid, temperature, and other ingredient interactions. Unfortunately, exposure to any of the above elements results in vitamin degradation.
It has been found that light penetration, particularly fluorescent light, in polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and glass bottles can degrade Vitamin A such that claims of Vitamin A content at trade age do not meet the recommended dietary allowance (RDA). Even at significant levels of 3500 International Units (IU) of Vitamin A, current technologies in PET could not spare Vitamin A content to a 20% dietary reference intake (DRI) claim of 1000 IU. For example, a freshly prepared 3500 IU Vitamin A containing fruit juice in a 20 oz. PET bottle exposed to typical store fluorescent light (as found in in-store visi-coolers) for one week results in approximately 1000 IU of remaining Vitamin A content. The average trade age to a consumer purchase could be significantly longer in time.
Therefore, a need exists to prevent degradation of vitamins in vitamin-containing compositions, including Vitamin A, as a result of exposure to light, particularly fluorescent light (as found in in-store visi-coolers) when the composition is contained in a clear or substantially clear bottle, such as PET and glass bottles.